Press release

CaixaBank reaffirms its commitment to providing personalised services to senior citizens with the most comprehensive offering in the Spanish market

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Specialised advisors to senior clients at CaixaBank’s branches

• CaixaBank scales up the service provided to the elderly with 2,000 senior advisers, extends the service hours offered by in-branch staff and strengthens all its service channels.

• José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, CaixaBank's Chairman, commented, “Our more than four million senior customers are a priority group for us, and as such, we’ve prepared the most ambitious offering in Spanish banking to cater to their needs.”

• Gonzalo Gortazar, CaixaBank's CEO, stated, “Today's announcement reinforces our firm commitment towards the elderly: we’re going to expand our current service offering using measures based on our specialisation and a close client relationship.”

• The bank reaffirms its commitment towards the senior group through ten specific initiatives:

1. Specialist advisers: The bank currently employs 750 exclusively-dedicated professionals with specific training. Next month this number will increase to 1,500, and in 2023, it will reach 2,000. CaixaBank is the first bank in Spain with specialist advisers for the elderly.
2. Further tailored support to senior customers: The branches will be staffed by 1,350 additional employees, with the aim of providing support to both CaixaBank’s senior customers as well as Bankia customers using CaixaBank's services during the period integration.
3. No restrictions: CaixaBank will eliminate all restrictions related to the service hours offered by in-branch staff.
4. Priority service: An ATM support service will be implemented, as well as priority service protocols for groups requiring them.
5. No waiting when collecting pensions: The advanced payment of monthly pensions on the 24th will be maintained in order to avoid waiting times and a high influx of customers at branches at the end of the month.
6. Personal helpline and WhatsApp service to communicate with managers: Customers over 65 years of age will be guaranteed direct and personalised communication with their managers through all service channels, whether in person, over the phone or via WhatsApp. The latter two channels may be used to arrange an appointment at the branch.
7. Personalised operations and use of passbooks in all ATMs: The bank will acquire 900 new ATMs and implement functionalities tailored to senior customers in its entire network: passbooks may be used with all CaixaBank's ATMs, which will also feature the ‘CaixaFácil’ menu, including simple and personalised operations.
8. Face-to-face training: The bank will offer senior citizens more than 3,000 face-to-face training sessions on financial matters and operations.
9. The widest network of branches in the country: CaixaBank will maintain the widest network of branches and ATMs in Spain, including in more than 2,200 municipalities.
10. No location left unserviced: The bank continues to be committed to ensuring financial inclusion. It will continue to operate in all locations where its services are currently available and will extend the service provided by its mobile branches, which already cover 426 towns and villages where 80% of users are over 60 years of age.

CaixaBank will enhance the personalised services it provides to the elderly. Today, the bank has announced that it reaffirms its commitment towards the senior group by launching ten initiatives, including plans to create a team of 2,000 senior advisers, the extension of the service hours offered by its in-branch staff and the strengthening of its communication channels with these users.

It will expand its global product and services offering for these customers, with a view to providing high quality service and maintaining its leading position in the sector, in which it has over four million customers and a market share of over 30% in direct-deposit pensions.

José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, CaixaBank's Chairman, explained, “We aim to provide an excellent service to all our customers, regardless of their degree of digitisation and the service channel that they choose to contact us through,” adding that “Our more than four million senior customers are a priority group for us, and as such, we’ve prepared the most ambitious offering in Spanish banking to cater for their needs.”

Gonzalo Gortazar, CaixaBank's CEO, stated, “Today's announcement reinforces our firm commitment towards the elderly: in addition to growing our service teams, we’re going to expand our current service offering using measures based on specialisation and a close client relationship.” Gortazar added, “Commitment to social causes and financial inclusion has been woven into CaixaBank’s fabric since its inception and throughout its evolution. Our commitment towards the elderly is an essential part of this, and it has been embodied by a wide array of measures in the past and reinforced today through our extensive presence across Spain. We’re the only bank that provides services in more than 2,600 municipalities.”

The plan envisages eliminating all restrictions on the service hours offered by in-branch staff. In addition, the existing appointment-based service will be enhanced with individualised and personalised service available at all hours, including the afternoons in the bank's 700+ branches. Furthermore, a priority service protocol will be implemented in all branches for the groups requiring it. These new measures will be launched in March.

The number of senior advisers will be doubled in one month

Furthermore, the personalised and specialised service at branches will be enhanced by creating a new senior adviser role. CaixaBank was the first bank to create a team of employees specialising in providing service to senior citizens, with specific training on gerontology, and is dedicated to offering support based on a close relationship, trust and communication.

The financial institution currently employs 750 senior advisers, which are mostly based in city branches with a higher number of customers over 65 years old. The size of this team will double in a month, reaching 1,500, and will be further increased to 2,000 next year.

Similarly, the branches will be expanded with additional 1,350 employees, which will provide support to both CaixaBank’s senior customers and Bankia customers using CaixaBank's tools and services during the process of integration of the branch network following the merger. These employees will join over 30,000 professionals that work at the bank's branches.

Support service for the use of ATMs and passbook operations

ATMs play a significant role in the service model created for the senior segment, as a long standing service channel with an extremely high operating capacity. CaixaBank's ATMs enable customers to carry out more than 250 different operations.

In order to facilitate ATM-based operations, on-site support will be provided to senior citizens requiring it, helping them to learn how to use it. This will allow them to use ATMs at any time of the day, without relying on the branch's opening hours.

In addition, by the end of 2022, the bank plans to offer all ATM users the possibility to use their passbook, which is the medium most chosen channel by senior customers. This functionality is currently implemented in more than 70% of the bank's network, and the necessary investments will be made to adapt the remaining 30% this year, including the replacement of 900 terminals.

Moreover, to facilitate ATM operations for customers less accustomed to using them, CaixaBank has launched the ‘CaixaFácil’ simplified menu, which includes direct access to the customer's most used operations, larger fonts and an adapted design. Any customer can have this as their default setting, which will be activated when they insert their passbook or card.

Personalised service over the telephone and via WhatsApp

CaixaBank will also strengthen the remote service channels to senior customers, which will guarantee the identification of and direct communication with the customer at all times, avoiding the use of a robot, even when their calls are not routed to the established adviser assigned to the customer but to CaixaBank's call center.

Among the options made available to customers to directly contact their adviser is a WhatsApp chat. This solution offers all the necessary security guarantees, and the application is already widely used by the elderly.

Meanwhile, the bank will offer senior customers more than 3,000 face-to-face training sessions on financial matters and operations. CaixaBank will promote the collaboration with older people's associations to continue jointly conducting free face-to-face workshops on digitisation such as carrying out ATM-based operations and through digital banking.

Committed to financial inclusion in rural areas

In rural areas, with high concentration of elderly population, CaixaBank has committed to maintaining its existing network, including the 420 towns and villages in which it is the only bank providing services and in which almost 80% of the users are over 60 years old.

In addition, it has the country's widest network of branches, with over 4,600 branches present in more than 2,200 municipalities. CaixaBank also has the largest network of ATMs in Spain, with 13,008 terminals.

By the end of this year, the bank expects to establish 40% of its branches in towns and villages with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. In addition to conventional and Store branches, it can implement various other models to achieve this, such as the single-employee branches. In the smallest towns and villages it also has counter-branches, which operate under a branch located in a larger nearby town and are open some days of the week, and mobile branches, which travel around 11 provinces providing services to municipalities in Castilla y León, Autonomous Region of Valencia, La Rioja, Castilla-La Mancha, Autonomous Region of Madrid and Andalusia.

As part of its commitment, the bank is planning to expand to new locations its mobile branch service, currently provided to 426 towns that are at risk of financial exclusion and in which 250,000 people reside, according to the INE (Spanish Statistical Office).

CaixaBank currently has 17 mobile branches that cover an average of 52,550 kilometres every month. In 2021 they enabled 20,000 users (customers and non-customers) to carry out a total of 220,000 operations. 80% of the people covered by the service are over 60 years of age.

Tailored offering to senior customers

In recent years, CaixaBank has provided the broadest specialised offering in the sector after launching various initiatives aimed at simplifying and supporting senior customers day-to-day, at both a financial and personal level, such as bringing forward monthly payments of the state pension to the 24th so as to avoid waiting for collection and a high influx of customers at branches at one time.

This comprehensive ecosystem offers different financial solutions and the possibility to benefit from exclusive services, such as a 24-hour assistant for communications and emergency help, a door-to-door handyman, a legal consultation service or medical consultations over the phone. Senior customers can also benefit from the protection offered by Protección Sénior from Securitas Direct and MyBox Salud Sénior, the health insurance tailored to this segment, which is offered through SegurCaixa Adeslas.

These initiatives are the latest development in a long tradition of providing advisory services aimed at maximising financial well-being during retirement, an area that CaixaBank has pioneered through VidaCaixa. It is the sector's most comprehensive offering, and includes life annuities that are transformed into lifelong monthly payments and special hybrid products that optimise the available wealth by combining return, liquidity and guarantees with an efficient intergenerational transmission.

 

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